I'm ambivalent about the message. I generally respect A Smart Bear and I enjoy reading that blog, but I think this post conflates "reputation" with "target audi

I'm ambivalent about the message. I generally respect A Smart Bear and I enjoy reading that blog, but I think this post conflates "reputation" with "target audience." I do think reputation can be powerful with some particular niche, but if the niche doesn't line up with what you are selling, that reputation is meaningless. Reputation is sensitive to context. If Tiger Woods says "Golf clubs from the XYZ corporation are the greatest clubs on the planet" then one assumes the XYZ corporation will see a surge in sales. But if Tiger Woods says "Pessac-Léognan White is the greatest white wine on the planet" then sales may not surge very much for Pessac-Léognan White, because Tiger Woods is not known to be a wine expert. That does not mean that reputation isn't powerful, only that its power is highly dependent on context.